Chapter 283: Late To Bed
Dominic led everyone back to the house, while one of the mages created a glowing ball of light over their heads to serve as a lantern.
Dominic didn’t think that it was all that dark out, but when he looked up, he saw that the sun was entirely beneath the horizon already. That was a bit odd, he didn’t recall his eyesight being so good.
But it was also bad. Sunset was bedtime, and he did hate to be late to bed.
"The maids will get everyone settled for the evening, and I will see you all in the morning. We don’t require them to stay up all night, so do try to remember everything you might need before dawn now." Dominic reminded them.
The mages nodded politely, while the architects chuckled.
"There isn’t much that we could need before dawn besides the privy, and there is one attached to the room. I’m sure that we will be fine for a few hours." He joked.
One of his assistants nodded in agreement. "If there is still running water, that would be great as well. Old Sunni here tends to trap dirt in that forest he calls chest hair."
Dominic laughed, then gestured to the end of the hall.
"The visitor rooms don’t all have showers. It’s at the end of the hall, and it’s Magitech, so there is hot running water. I have no doubt that you’ll manage to figure out how to operate it quickly enough." He explained.
He stopped in the kitchen to grab a plate of sweets and a jug of tea on his way upstairs, then stopped when he saw the light on in the Library.
If the light was on, then Alexis was not yet asleep.
"Oh good, you brought snacks. I believe that I understand why people get frustrated with the Purity Sect Mages." She greeted Dominic as he entered.
"That bad?"
She sighed. "Worse. They take everything literally, but they’re always trying to be helpful. Which means they’re always underfoot. Making them housemaids is going to take some time, but Beth thinks they’ll be good kitchen helpers.
They are turning out to be excellent bodyguards, though.
They’re trained in all sorts of defensive magic, as well as utility magic like water creation and a spell for cleaning clothes."
Dominic winked at her. "Well, then they are good maids. For the laundry and room cleaning. Just maybe not for serving food or as a lady’s maid until they learn the best practices."
Alexis shrugged. "Well, at least we get something out of it. They’ve agreed to make us basic enhancement gems for the militia. Just physical enhancement to start with, but that’s the one that every guard wants.
I don’t know where we’re going to get them Skill Cores that are relevant, though. Do we even have any masters with combat skills? They’re the only ones who can make them, and it’s rare that anyone sells them. Even going through the Palace, it will take time."
Dominic frowned. "Well, if nobody in the Royal Guard can make them Paladins, I suppose we could make them Gunslingers. The Sheriff is a Master equivalent. We might have someone with a high enough level as a Warrior as well.
Likely one of the Generals can do it."
Alexis nodded and made a note of it. "Talk to them in the morning. If they can make proper cores for our guardsmen, we can make it worth their time. I believe that one of them is going to be doing the training, is he not?"
Dominic nodded. "Yes, General Alator is training the Guards, and they have a session in the morning. I will sort it out with him then. The new team will be working on the apartment blocks tomorrow as well, so I need to talk to the Techno Wizards.
I’ve got plans for the factory, and I will get them to build the prototypes for use in the apartments, since we don’t have any spare parts."
Alexis leaned back in her seat with a smile. "You know, we really might make a decent duchy of this place yet. But I’m not sure if that’s going to be an improvement.
Yes, we’re incredibly busy here, but being away from the pressures of palace life has been such a pleasure that I’m not in any hurry to be back in the political power games with a powerful Magitech Duchy behind me."
Dominic winked at her. "I would suggest that we limit production, but if we did, I’m sure that one of your brothers would be here in less than a season to see what it would take to get us to expand the factory."
Alexis chuckled. "My Second Brother is bound to show up here either way. You know how he is about new magical knowledge. As soon as he finds out that we’re making magitech that can be mass-produced, he will rush right over.
But you are sure that the designs can be mass-produced, right?"
Dominic made a noncommittal gesture. "Yes and no. We can have all of the parts mass-produced, but we need skilled workers for all the finishing details or the items aren’t going to work.
Some of the Sorcerers, the demihumans that is, can do it the same way that I do and just will it to work with magic. But that’s not going to be a viable production method for most of the population.
So, we will need to train a number of skilled Techno Wizard apprentices. But I’ve already got plans for that. The Guild will bring us an Engineer who can train apprentices.
They don’t even need the skill core, just enough training and magical aptitude will let them work the factory.
Job training is nothing new for a career type job, and that’s what this is.
If they stay at the factory, we can get them skill cores as a retention bonus. It’s not massively physically demanding, so they should be able to work it into their later years, when their children will take care of them."
Well, hopefully. Many of the residents didn’t have families or children yet. Unless that imbalance sorted itself out naturally, they might have to teach the workers about retirement planning, which wasn’t really a thing in most of the world.